The Minorities Of Cyprus

This book examines the various minorities living in the island of Cyprus from the early modern (late Venetian and early Ottoman) period down to the present day. It charts their history, with special emphasis on their relations with the powers ruling Cyprus and with the two dominant Christian-Greek and Muslim-Turkish communities. The theme running through the book is that despite being significant members of Cyprus’ society, the three historical minorities (Maronites, Armenians and Latins) were only included in society to a certain extent by the two major communities. This was formalised in the post-independence (1960) period when they were compelled to become members of either dominant community and thus they suffered ‘internal exclusion’ by being regarded as religious sub-groups of one of the two dominant communities rather than national minorities in their own right. Within this general context, the social, legal and political roles, customs, culture and language of the various minorities are examined as they evolved through time and in response to internal and external developments affecting Cyprus in the political, economic and global spheres. They are discussed not as static entities, but as evolving groups that have adapted with greater or lesser degrees of success to the radical and at times painful changes Cyprus has undergone, especially over the last 150 years, in all walks of life. Finally, the question of what the future holds for the minorities of the island in the light of Cyprus’ EU membership and the prospect of reunification are also analysed. This book is a product of the conference “Minorities of Cyprus: Past, Present and Future”, which was held on 24 and 25 November 2007 at the European University Cyprus.

Investigating the relationship between ethnic pride and prejudice in the divided community of Cyprus, this book focuses on the ethnic stereotypes that Greek and Turkish Cypriot secondary school students develop of each other and other ethnic groups in Cyprus.

The author examines recent historical events in three countries and concludes that violence has occurred in these countries because the agencies of social control failed in a number of ways to satisfy the needs of minorities.

This report maps the current demography of minorities on the island; assesses the peace processes that failed in the past; examines the problems, prospects and challenges that the peace process is facing in regard to minority issues and explores ways in which minorities could positively contribute to a solution; and gives an opportunity for the voices of minority representativemembers to be heard at the domestic and internationallevels.www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=977

Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Latins, and Armenians have been the primary historical communities that make up the multicultural landscape of Cyprus. However, the continuing conflict between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots has geographically, socially and psychologically segregated these communities, while the influx of economic migrants, especially after Cyprus’s accession to the EU in 2004, has, in turn, contributed to Cyprus’s challenges, arising from multiculturalism, in an altogether different perspective. How has education, over time, addressed and re-examined all these issues introduced by Cyprus’ complex evolving multiculturalism and ethnic diversity? How can education better attend to current problems of coexistence in Cyprus, and what kind of role can it play in a federal re-united country? This collection of essays introduces an innovative and critical examination of these questions in order to provide relevant answers. More specifically, it examines how formal, non-formal and informal education contributed to the creation and perpetuation of the Cyprus conflict, as well as to prejudices, inter-ethnic stereotypes, and misperceptions. The book also discusses how education could contribute to conflict transformation, empathy and peaceful coexistence amongst the different Cypriot communities, and how this has been possible in other multi-ethnic societies. The volume will be of interest to students, practitioners, and researchers interested in peace education, multiculturalism and conflict transformation.

This book explores the different perspectives and historical moments of nationalism in Cyprus. It does this by looking at nationalism as a form of identity, as a form of ideology, and as a form of politics. The fifteen contributors to this book are scholars of different scientific backgrounds and present Cypriot nationalisms from an interdisciplinary framework, including approaches such as history, political science, psychology, and gender studies. The chapters take a historical approach to nationalism and argue that the world of nations, ethnic identity, and national ideology are neither eternal, nor ahistorical nor primordial, but are rather socially constructed and function within particular historical and social contexts. As a land that was, and still is, marked by opposed nationalisms – that is, Greek and Turkish – Cyprus constitutes a fertile ground for examining the history, the dynamics, and the dialectics of nationalism.

"[U]shers the reader into the complexities of the categorical ambiguity of Cyprus [and]... concentrates... on the Dead Zone of the divided society, in the cultural space where those who refuse to go to the poles gather." -- Anastasia Karakasidou, Wellesley College The volatile recent past of Cyprus has turned this island from the idyllic "island of Aphrodite" of tourist literature into a place renowned for hostile confrontations. Cyprus challenges familiar binary divisions, between Christianity and Islam, Greeks and Turks, Europe and the East, tradition and modernity. Anti-colonial struggles, the divisive effects of ethnic nationalism, war, invasion, territorial division, and population displacements are all facets of the notorious Cyprus Problem. Incorporating the most up-to-date social and cultural research on Cyprus, these essays examine nationalism and interethnic relations, Cyprus and the European Union, the impact of immigration, and the effects of tourism and international environmental movements, among other topics.